My dearest cacao-tree!
When my parents decided to call me Laurence (in French, Laurence is a female name), which comes from the marvellous aromatic plant Laurus nobilis or laurel, they did not realize that my life would be linked to the plant kingdom.
When I was a student, botany was my favorite topic. A few years later, during my PhD research, I first met you in Côte d’Ivoire. Since then, our paths have been inextricably linked, and my whole life has changed. Is this an accident? The amazing thing is that my oldest memory is one Easter day in my aunt Francine's little garden, gathering the chocolate eggs announced by chiming bells, early in the morning… so you see, chocolate has always been a part of my life.
I owe you so many things! Since the beginning, you have been guiding me with your old knowledge and wisdom. Weren’t you revered by the pre-Hispanic civilizations of South and Central America, particularly the Maya? Yes, all that, I discovered!
I traveled the tropical world, all around the Equator and met different kinds of people. I saw, heard, and also felt the unbalanced and unequitable economic system we live with today, and my heart opened a little bit more. So I decided to let go of my scientific research about you, but to embrace and stay with you in a different sense. Instead of torturing you in a lab, I committed to supporting you, the small farmers taking care of you, and the small chocolatiers transforming your treasures, the cacao beans, with love and respect, and welcoming them into my Chocolatitudes shop in Paris, to make this wonderful food better accessible to the people. They must know the truth.
What is coming next, I do not know. But I can assure you that I love you, I trust you, and that I will do all my best to protect you… and the other trees and plants too. May I feel you more and more to let you guide me, to let you open my heart, as you perfectly know how to do.
Laurence from Paris
